Imperfections
by Pheep
Summary: (Post-war, peaceful palace setting. La dee da). Dom falls hard for the lovely (beautiful, amazing, divine, perfect) new lady at court, asks the worst person possible for help, and ends up having a very unexpected time of things. A KD ficlet.


A Note or Five from the Author: SALUTATIONS, ONE AND ALL! Ahh...It's been quite a while, quite a while indeed. This is the first thing I've posted since...what, March, maybe? Eh, no matter. Let's leave that in the past. I just hope I haven't gotten rusty. XD

Writing this fic was a fairly odd process - first came the end, then the beginning, and then the middle. I'm just too cool to do it in order, it seems. Ohohoho. Even so, it's finally done (or in other words, it's finally at the point where I've tinkered with it so much that I won't feel the urge to fix anything again for...a few hours or so), and finally up here. I'm personally fairly happy with how it turned out, but of course reviews of any kind of welcome, as long as they're honest - _except_ for pure flames. If you're going to leave a negative review, at least include reasons for why the fic isn't to your taste. :D In other words, if you think I SCUK!!!!1, then please tell me why, or else I'll be unable to understand just how it is that I SCUK!!!!1.

Thank you. nn Enjoy. (Man, what is up with this restriction on emoticons? Oh well...)

- · -

**Imperfections**

- · -

_Nadia._ Lady _Nadia_ of _Meadowshire. _Most certainly the loveliest lady to appear in court in Dom's lifetime - even her _name_ was dripping with the utter loveliness of its bearer. This was a goddess of a woman, the court lady to end all court ladies - a cascading flow of silky, raven black tresses - flawless ivory skin - cheeks tinted with the warmest hues of a sunrise - and those plush, full lips...

Oh yes. Dom had a very good feeling about this one - this was _the one_, the very utmost peak of his bachelor career, he was sure of it. Tonight at the party they were both to attend, he would meet her and greet her and whisk the lovely damsel off her dainty little feet - and so it would go.

And so it _must_ go. There was no way in the world that he was going to let this one slip by him, one so breathtaking, one so utterly and absolutely _perfect._..(He refused to consider the possibility of her having any social shortcomings. Such a tragedy would be the cruelest blow that Mithros had ever dealt mankind).

But for this great undertaking, he would need to prepare. And he would need help.

- · -

Kel stood in the doorway and blinked at him. Her eyebrows rose very slowly. "Uhm."

Dom watched his desired recruit with a hopeful expression. Kel continued to blink at him, and seemed to be considering her response carefully. At last she hit on one.

"You may not have noticed, Dom, but I'm not exactly an expert on the secrets of a court lady's mind, either."

Dom, undaunted, tried to reason with her. "Yes, but you're still a woman, and you're in your twenties yet. You must be able to draw some advice from that."

Kel smiled wryly at him and crossed her arms, apparently amused by this logic. "I find it hard to believe that I am the only friend you have who is a 'woman in her twenties', Dom. Why did you choose me, of all people?"

Dom grinned. "Well, because! Any other lady friend of mine would fly into a jealous rage if I were to approach them with such a favor. It's understandable, of course, but even so..." Again he fixed an imploring gaze upon her. "Kel, you're my only hope. Please, will you help me?"

Kel stared straight into his eyes for a second, a peculiar look on her face. Then she looked down and frowned slightly, her face coloring a little. Dom took it that her stubbornness was giving way, though grudgingly so.

Finally she sighed. "...Oh, all right," she said quietly, and looked up at him with another crooked half smile. "You know I can't say no to you."

Dom grinned at her, elated; and so the preparations began.

- · - 

And so the preparations continued. That afternoon in Kel's rooms, Dom was given a thorough inspection from head to toe. Hair was smoothed, sleeves were securely buttoned, hems and collars were adjusted just so, and a number of other insignificant flaws in appearance were remedied; Dom personally thought that he ought to take some pride in just how minor these flaws were.

Then they moved on to mental preparation.

"_No_, I'm not going to do any _roleplaying_!" Kel exclaimed, laughing. Things had grown more relaxed at this point, and they were mainly passing this portion of the 'training' sitting comfortably, Kel in a chair by the nightstand and Dom on the edge of her bed. Even so, this was serious business, and it was to be treated as such. Or at least, that was the point that Dom had tried using in this argument, and failed with.

"But why not?" He asked for the third time, and forced his own grin back into an impatient frown. He had yet to receive a decent answer.

"Because," She said, settling down, "there is no way I'm going to pretend to be either you _or_ this Nadia girl. So forget about it."

"Come on, you'd have fun."

Kel gave him a witheringly skeptical look from her chair, and he laughed, waving her off. "Alright, alright, never mind..." He paused, then arched an eyebrow at her questioningly. "What do you suggest we do instead, then?"

Kel shrugged, but seeing Dom smile slowly as he prepared to launch into a second roleplaying appeal, she added a sharp "I'll think of something, though. Just give me a minute."

His plans foiled, Dom leaned back against the bed and rolled his eyes. "Yes, Mother," he said with a sigh. He picked idly at a loose string on his shirt's hem, waiting lazily.

About half a minute later, he heard Kel ask quietly, "So...What is she like, this Nadia?"

He looked up with a broad, wistful smile, and laughed a little for no particular reason. "Ahh...She's unbelievable! The eyes, the hair..._everything_. She's beautiful. Amazingly beautiful. Divine. So amazingly, incredibly beautiful that mere words fail to describe her..."

Kel smiled wanly, her eyes shifting sideways to observe a nearby wall. "She sounds nice," she said. Her voice was strangely hollow, and echoed with something that was almost melancholy. Dom blinked at her uncertainly. He had the distinct feeling that he should be apologizing for something, but he didn't know what. He was about to ask her if something was wrong, but she cut him off.

"It's getting dark. The evening bells should strike soon," she remarked. She was looking out the window now, and upon following her gaze Dom saw that it was indeed growing dark. A few seconds later he heard the slow clanging of the bell.

A thrill went through him. The party was starting! And Nadia! Nadia of Meadowshire! Dom was up in a flash; he sped towards the door-- "Well, I'm off, have a--"

"**Hold** it."

Dom froze, caught off-guard by the loud, military tone of the voice. Kel strode up to him determinedly, though she wore a rather embarrassed smile.

"Sorry," the lady knight said sheepishly. "Sometimes that voice projection trick still gets the better of me. Anyway, let me make sure everything's still in order before you go."

Dom smirked, then turned to face her with a drawn-out, exasperated sigh. "Oh, al_right_," he said dramatically. "Just be quick in preening your last chick, Mother dear." Kel just smirked back at him, and began her final inspection.

As she fussed wordlessly, Dom's thoughts wandered yearningly back to the party - and, even more yearningly, to Lady Nadia. Thinking of her, he wondered then if he was really at all prepared for meeting her...or, even if he was prepared, if it would matter any.

"...You know..." he said absently, and Kel paused in straightening his collar to listen. "Sometimes, I've got to wonder just what it is I have to offer such a girl. Plenty of men are good-looking, so it's not as though I stand out that much, really." He smiled a little. "I mean, sure, most of the time I don't bother thinking about things like that - after all, everyone seems to like me anyway...but at times like this, I really don't know for certain."

Kel surveyed him in surprise, taken aback by such an unexpected show of humility. Never before had she heard anything even resembling self-doubt from out of Dom's mouth, and she wondered at the strangeness of it...before slowly forming a response.

"...Well, that's easy," she said, and began to smooth out the wrinkles from his tunic. "You're not only handsome, you know - you're funny...sociable...intelligent..." she picked each of her words carefully, so not to risk dropping anything like "charming" or "adorable" without thinking, "...and of course, you're a kind person. And I can honestly tell you that there are only a handful of other good-looking men out there with all of those qualities," she finished with a tiny smile, a humorous glint flashing in her eyes.

"Oh, only a _handful_, is it?" Dom questioned, and ruffled her hair with a grin. Kel grinned back at him, though he noticed that it didn't quite seem to reach her eyes. He wondered again for a moment if there was something bothering her, but a fresh clang of the bell drove this out of his mind.

"Ah, I'm late!" Turning back to Kel, he clapped her on the shoulder quickly and said, "Well, I'm off - thanks for all your help, Kel, really," and hurried out the door, returning her mute wave goodbye.

Dom strode briskly down the hall, feeling his confidence restored. Great - he was ready. Now the only question was whether Nadia was ready for _him_. He grinned to himself, and started to walk a little faster. It was certainly going to be an interesting night!

- · -

And so Dom met Lady Nadia at the party, lovely as usual in a deep crimson gown, with lace and satin and rose petals and all the other pretty things you'd normally find on such a lady's deep crimson gown. They danced several times, and were now getting along quite wonderfully with one another - for as it turned out, she not only had a sparkling personality, but also a well-cultivated sense of humor - _and_ (he was willing to bet) an interest in Dom as well. Everything was going perfectly: or at least, it should have been.

Dom didn't know what it was, exactly, but something was definitely bothering him. It had been nagging at him in the back of his head the entire evening, but hard as he tried he couldn't think of what it was. Something felt wrong, somehow...but what? What in the world could be wrongenough to disturb him on a night like this?

While Nadia went off to "powder her nose", Dom thought back on the day's events, trying to discern if there was anything he had left undone. He had spent most of the day with...Kel...that's right, something had seemed odd about her earlier. Why hadn't he asked her about it? She had almost seemed...depressed...

Then suddenly he started to remember: the strange look she had given him when he had asked for her help; the way she had sounded when they were talking about Nadia; that false smile, that blush...

"_...Well, that's easy. You're not only handsome - you're funny...sociable...intelligent..."_

'...Not to mention a total _idiot'_, thought Dom. Of course she had helped him, that's just how Kel _was_. How could he have been so stupid, to put her through all that? How could he have not noticed any sooner? Gods. He felt terrible.

"Dom?" Nadia's heavenly tones reached his ears, and he turned his head partly towards her as she walked over. "Is something wrong?" she asked, taking her seat beside him again. Her large, bright, vacuous chestnut eyes were fixed upon him.

Dom just stared at her, having fallen in a sort of daze. Still, there remained a coherent part of him that insisted he should do something - particularly, that he get out of there right away. He didn't deserve to stay, that much he was aware of.

Drawing from this, he put on a completely false - but very pleasant and apologetic - smile, and used a voice of the same description to say, "Yes, I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I have to go now - I just remembered something important." Half a beat later he thought of asking "you understand, don't you?" for added courtesy, but let this go on the grounds that he no longer really cared whether she understood or not.

Nadia's lovely little face fell (quite gracefully of course) at this disheartening news. He offered another utterly false smile. She accepted, and returned it with one of her own.

"Oh...Well, alright, take care..." replied the downcast lady, and she watched after him with a gaze that was laden with emotion. He smiled a third time, and left the ballroom without another word.

- · -

After distancing himself a good ways from the party, Dom wasn't entirely sure where to go next. Wandering aimlessly, he went over his options. The barracks were out of the question: the last thing he needed right now was a bunch of his friends asking if Nadia had turned him down...Same with visiting Neal - although the Meathead's company was actually slightly more tempting in this case...Even so, it'd probably be best to go somewhere alone for a while to think things over...

Suddenly he paused. Looking around, he realized that he was walking down the hall that led to Kel's rooms. Panicking briefly, he stood and fidgeted in one direction or another for a few seconds, then turned around and quickly strode off the way he came. Yeah, he _definitely_ needed to think things over for a while. He headed toward the courtyard.

Walking out into the cool night air, Dom was grateful to find the grounds deserted. After strolling around for a while, he arrived at a small cluster of trees. He sat down under them. His back thudded agreeably against one of the trunks, and he let out a long, relaxed breath. Yes. This would do nicely.

A few seconds later he heard a quiet string of oddly familiar chirping. He groaned. The sparrows' roost. Of course it was. 'If there's one thing I need right now, it's a _reminder_', he thought sarcastically, but settled back against the tree nonetheless. If he was going to think about Kel, then this was as good a place as any to do it, if not better.

Looking up at the slices of moon that shone through the tree branches, Dom wondered what exactly he was going to do. He couldn't just continue on pretending to know nothing - that would be awkward for him, and even worse it would cause Kel pain. She'd want him to be honest, anyway, he knew that.

But...he didn't know what the honest thing to do _was_ in this case. To go and tell her that he wasn't interested...? No, he couldn't do that. And besides, it wasn't as though her affections were a burden to him - which was odd, really, because normally they would be in a case like this. But for some reason, he didn't feel bothered at all by the idea. In fact, he actually felt almost...

He paused, eyebrows raising high. Wait. Why should he be happy about this? It was, it was Kel, after all. She was great and everything, but hardly his type. He shouldn't have been _happy_. He should have been concerned. Yes. Concerned.

But he was happy.

This was quite perplexing. Viewing the situation logically, he observed two possible explanations for such a reaction: one being that he actually returned Kel's feelings, and the other being that he was secretly an egotistical horror of a person who didn't care if one of his best friends was in love with him, so long as he was being admired by yet another woman. Both of the pictures these painted were somewhat disconcerting to Dom, who shifted uncomfortably on the grass.

One of the sparrows (apparently an insomniac) chirped again, and at this signal Dom's thoughts were steered back around towards Kel herself.

Kel. How well did he know Kel, anyway?

The answer came in images: Kel smiling, Kel riding, Kel talking to him; Kel the page riding a horse much too big for her, Kel the squire shaking his hand and giggling, Kel the squire nearly hammering her own hands to a board; Kel the knight, telling them to go back across the border without her; Kel the knight, off to battle Stenmun and Blayce. Kel laughing, Kel frowning, Kel with her face fixed like stone...Kel blushing...Kel pretending to smile.

Noticing, after a while, that he had fallen into a sort of Kel-induced stupor, Dom jerked his head forward and opened his eyes. He hadn't realized he had closed them. He also hadn't realized that another person had entered the courtyard in this space of time, though this was made known to him one his name was called out.

"Dom?"

Dom started and looked up; Kel was walking toward him, a cloak pulled over her shoulders. She stopped in front of him and leaned down, looking concerned. "I saw you from my window. Did something happen?"

Dom stared at her for a moment, then looked down, having no idea how to begin. Kel crouched down so that they were face to face and watched him uncertainly; after a while she finally asked, "...Um...Didn't it work out with Nadia?"

At this, Dom had to smirk a little. "Not exactly, no."

"Oh..." Kel said quietly. Her eyes skimmed the grass. "...I'm sorry."

"It's alright."

She shifted out of the crouch and sat down. "Really?"  
  
"Mm."

An awkward silence settled between them. Dom focused on a blade of grass by his foot, and tried to gather his wits -- he knew that he'd end up leaving everything unsaid if he didn't force himself now. Grasping onto that weak resolve, he opened his mouth to speak, but before his brain could form anything decent to say, Kel broke the silence instead.

"Well, it was her loss, anyway," She said, her tone firm; Dom looked up then, and saw that she was smiling at him. Not a normal smile, of course - it was one of those sad, sympathetic smiles you use when you're trying to comfort someone; a let's-just-make-the-best-of-it sort of smile. Before, this wouldn't have meant anything to Dom -- but in light of the night's events, he could see now, he could almost tell that the smile wasn't meant just for him, but for herself as well. A fresh pang of guilt struck him, and before he knew it he was talking.

"I left Nadia. At the party, I left. I realized something important, and I had to go think things over - so I left her." He felt odd as he said this, as though he was reciting lines from a long-rehearsed speech - automatically, almost. A part of him was surprised at how normal his voice sounded, even though his words were so jumbled otherwise. He watched as Kel's face gained a look of confusion, and looked down to brace himself for what would come next.

"...I see," Kel said, sounding about as unsure about this as she had looked. Another awkward pause followed, and Dom's eyes flickered back up to her several times until she got the message to pry further. "So...what did you realize?"

"Do you have feelings for me?"

Dom winced as soon as the question left his mouth. The abruptness of it had startled even him. This was nothing compared to effect it had on Kel, though. He watched as the color drained out of her face, then surged back in a rather violent shade of pink; she blinked at him dumbly. "W- What?"

Feeling a lot more self-conscious now, Dom lowered his head and glanced to the side, feeling himself blushing as well. "...Do you have feelings for me," he repeated in a mumble, though his voice failed miserably in trying to make it sound like a question. The mechanic feeling he had started off with had vanished, and was replaced by a very severe desire to take back the entire conversation. But this, of course, was impossible, so instead he just sat frozen there and waited for some kind of response from the woman that he, against any expectations on his part, had fallen in love with.

Several moments passed before Kel said anything. But then, just as Dom was about to get up and tell her to forget about it, she started to speak. "I-I..." Hearing this, Dom quickly looked back up at her; he noticed that she was still very red, and seemed unwilling to look at him. 

"That is- that is, um- maybe?" She shook her head rapidly. "I mean -- well, how do you expect me to answer something like that?!" she exclaimed anxiously, running a distressed hand through her hair. Dom's eyes darted to the hand, and he reached out and caught it in his own without thinking, evoking a quiet gasp from Kel in response. She fixed wide eyes on him now, and he stared straight back at her, looking faintly surprised at himself; then before he could stop himself, he was kissing her.

A part of Kel seemed to have expected this, for she returned the kiss without hesitation - and even after they broke apart, the shock in her features seemed to have faded a little. She gazed at him for a couple seconds, dimly fathoming; then finally she murmured, "...So...that's what you realized."

Dom grinned. "Exactly," he whispered, and leaned in to kiss her again.

- · -


End file.
